Friends, Slaves, and Nightmares

29: "Normal"

The sky was a pale grayish blue, with faint streaks of orange and pink staining the solid dull color. Things were beginning to stir and wake, responding to the changing of the sky and the sun spilling its beautiful colors across the pale canvous of a sky. Up, up, and up the sun slowly rose, peaking out from above the horizon. Hues of red joined the pinks and oranges, mixing together with the blue-gray sky to create purplish hues. The colors mingled together, growing in strength and brightening.

Fragments of light skittered across the dewy grass, spreading out across the whole landscape. The light brought with it a whisper of warmth, slowly growing in power and strength, endangering the morning dew. The dew began the process of evaporation, very slowly leaving the grass and taking with it the wonderful glossy sheen that had covered the grass in the early morning hours.

The sun was nearly above the horizon now. The streaks of colors across the sky were brighter, having killed off the grays of twilight. The golden disk slowly rised, leaving behind the horizon and starting a new day.

"I told you that you would love it." David said, smiling. His foggy eyes having miss the beautiful spectacle unfolding before him.

"Thank you..." Mina said softly and glanced at David, smiling. The fresh air was cool and crisp still, untouched by the whispering warmth of the sun. "I needed this."

"I know you did." He smiles and puts his hand on Mina's shoulder. "It's relaxing and distracts you from... Well, everything."

Mina nods, forgetting a moment that her blind friend more than likely can't see the motion of her nodding before quietly correcting her error. "Yeah... It does."

They stared out over the lake in front of them, which had barely stated to glisten from the new morning light. The colors seemed to have floated down from the sky and spread through the lake, hues of purples, light and dark blues, and sometimes a hint of pink and yellow stained the water's surface now. A slight breeze caused the surface of the lake to ripple and distort its reflection of the world.

Mina began unlacing her worn out gray shoes to take them off. The lake held her gaze and a small smile clung to her lips. "How about we go for a swim?"

A frown crossed David's face as he looked in the direction of Mina's voice. "You can't be serious. I can't see?" He waved his hand in front of his face for dramatic effect.

She just laughed slightly and shook her head, getting her feet free from the confinement of her worn out shoes. "It's only waist deep in most areas David. Maybe shoulder deep in the middle. I'll stay with you and you'll be fine." Next came off her socks.

David shook his head and began to work on removing his own shoes. "Fine then, swimming it is!" He smiled slightly.

Mina beamed, taking off her jacket and laying it on top of her shoes, starting to wade into the cool lake water. "Now hurry up you slow poke!"

David had gotten his shoes and socks off, starting to cautiously step into the water. "You're crazy Mina! This water is ice cold!" He slowly and tentatively felt his way towards Mina, testing where he was stepping before placing his full weight on his feet.

"Don't worry, I can fix that!" Mina lowered her scaled dragon arm into the water. The scales slowly began to glow as the heated up, in turn warming the water. The warmth from her dragon arm heated quickly and the warmth moved faster through the lake than was regularly possible.

The warmth from her dragon arm spread to where David was standing, leaving him perplexed. "Now how did you do that?"

"I put my arm into the water and basically am trying to light the water on fire. But obviously, water doesn't catch on fire. It just gets warmer." Leaving her arm in for several more moments she carefully took her scaled arm out of the water. The glowing of the scales slowly vanished and returned to their normal shade of gray. Water droplets clung to her arm now as she waded deeper into the lake. The water was now pleasantly cool as it reached her knees. "Now hurry up!"

"I'm hurrying! What happened to staying next to me, huh?!" David joked a bit and rolled his eyes.

Mina glanced back at David. "I didn't realize how much of a slow poke you were!" She laughed a bit and stayed still in the water to wait for David.

David seemed to know how to erase her fear and thoughts of what had recently happened. Being with him calmed her.

No more Pitch.

No more Damion.

No more whips.

And no more pain.

David was the first real friend she had ever had. He was kind and caring. He had even risked his life with Pitch and Damion for her. He was willing to do anything to protect her. When they had first met, they were near strangers, but something had clicked. They immediately trusted each other and got along. David was probably the closest thing she had to family. With him, she felt safe. She let her cares go. Things could sometimes almost feel normal.

A splash of water shook Mina from her thoughts. She let out a shrill cry of surprise. David was now standing next to Mina, laughing his head off since Mina's front side was now drenched in water.

"I so got you!" David said with a wide grin on his face, laughing.

"That was a cheap shot!" Mina retorted and scooped up a handful of water with her hands, throwing it towards David and hitting his face. Now it was her turn to laugh.

"Hey! I'm the blind one here!" David said, wipping the water off of his face.

"Well I was distracted." She began to splash more water at David.

He laughed and began to try and run away from Mina. Well, it was more sloshing through the water in ridiculous bounds than running, but it was better than staying within Mina's range of splashing. She just laughed and sloshed after David in the knee height water. Eventually David turned around and chased Mina back with several splashes, then the two stood in one spot and exchanged splashes of water. Within a few minutes the two were soaked from all the splashing. Mina paused a moment to rest her arms, laughing loudly still, then suddenly David jumped over and wrapped Mina in a hug, causing the two to laugh and smile.

Maybe things can be normal, Mina thought as she returned David's hug and laughed with him. Well, normal, to my own standards. Not like having a dragon arm and hunters after me will ever be considered normal by most people's standards.

 Within several moments, all thoughts of the previous day's challenges and hardships had completely left their minds. The two were messing around as most sixteen year olds their age would. Whips, slaves, masters, pain, all of it had left their mind. They had even forgotten the scars that now covered their backs. The scars would never vanish, but the two friends were discovering it is possible to move pass the past and to allow their scars to serve a reminder of the lessons they had learned. The scars would never hold them back. They were distant memories of the past. Everything could be normal.